Ever asked, "Why can't we just…?" and watched an engineer take a deep breath?
You might be technical enough to annoy engineers.
Maybe you see connections before you understand all the details. You can picture what something could become, even when you haven't figured out how to build it yet. And you're willing to ask the question that everyone else seems comfortable leaving alone.
In this episode of the Sprinkler Nerd Podcast, we're exploring that space between curiosity and expertise. The ideas that won't leave you alone. The questions you're almost afraid to ask. And what happens when you start experimenting before you have every answer.
There's real skill in making an idea work, and plenty to learn from the people who know how. There's also value in being the person willing to ask, "What if?"
Whether you're working in irrigation, building a business, or learning something new, I hope you recognize a little of yourself in this conversation.
What's a question you've asked that challenged the way something has always been done? Share it in the comments.
Keep asking why.
[00:00:04] If you are an irrigation professional, old or new, who designs, installs, or maintains high-end residential, commercial, or municipal properties, and you want to use technology to improve your business, to get a leg up on your competition, even if you're an old-school irrigator from the days of hydraulic systems, this show is for you. Hey, what's up, Sprinkler Nerds? Welcome back to The Sprinkler Nerd Show.
[00:00:31] I'm your host, Andy Humphrey, and I've got a quick one for you today. This one's for the curious, those of you who are adventurous, you risk-takers out there, the people who see something and can't help but wonder, what else could it be? And if you're listening to this podcast, there's a pretty good chance you are one of those people.
[00:00:58] I think sometimes I'm technical enough that engineers may not like me, but I'm not technical enough to actually do their job. I heard that quote recently, that's my own spin on it, can't remember, I should have made a writer-downer, can't remember where I heard it, but I just thought it resonated with me. And not all engineers are like this, but sometimes I know I can annoy an engineer, because I'm not an engineer, so I can't do their job.
[00:01:27] Anyway, it's a bit what this podcast today is going to be about, and I mean that with all the respect in the world to engineers. I love engineers. I love what they do. I love what engineers are capable of building. And I also recognize that I might, I could be sometimes annoying to work with.
[00:01:52] And maybe some of you can relate to that too in your own jobs with your own associate or your boss or someone in the hallway, someone else. You likely understand technology because you're listening to this podcast. You might understand systems. You understand the concepts behind how things work.
[00:02:16] And you can look at a sensor, a controller, or maybe a communication network, or a piece of software and start connecting all those things in your head. If this can do that, why can't we connect this to that? And if we connect those two things, couldn't we also like do something completely different?
[00:02:42] And what if we took that same technology and used it in this other industry over here? Like these cross wirings happening in your brain. And suddenly in your head, you've built something that doesn't exist and you're ready to go. And you're like, dang, let's build this. I'm so excited. This is going to change the world. It's going to change the industry. Meanwhile, at the same time, the engineer at said manufacturing company is probably sitting there and thinking,
[00:03:10] Andy, you have no idea how difficult that would be. And I guess they could be right. I shouldn't say they're probably right. They could be right. But I wonder if that's part of what makes curiosity so valuable. Not knowing exactly how difficult something is might be the very thing that allows us to imagine it in the first place. Think about that for a second.
[00:03:40] Not knowing exactly how difficult something is might be the very thing that allows us to imagine it in the first place. If you knew every obstacle, every limitation, every technical challenge, and every reason something might not work, would you even start it? Would you even take the risk?
[00:04:05] Or would you convince yourself it wasn't possible before you even tried? And I guess as I think this through, I'm not suggesting that ignorance is some kind of power. I've underestimated how difficult things would be more times than I can count. Probably on a weekly basis, I think, oh, yeah, I'm just going to go into my office and knock out X, Y, and Z first thing.
[00:04:33] And X, Y, and Z ends up taking all day. It wasn't just the first thing. So I underestimate how difficult things are going to be. And I bet some of you have been there too. You've got this great idea. It makes perfect sense in your head. You can almost see the finished product. And oftentimes I see the finished product. And that's the hard part because I see something, but I'm not there yet. Hasn't quite hit my vision board in the back of my brain. I know what it's going to be. I know what it can do. And until it gets there, I just can't let it go.
[00:05:03] And what happens is you actually start building it. And suddenly you discover about a hundred things you didn't know you didn't know. I've had plenty of ideas that sounded so great in my head and they turned out to be way more complicated in the real world. And I've had people who know a lot more than I do explain exactly why something won't work the way I imagined.
[00:05:31] And that's okay because how else are we supposed to learn? How are we supposed to learn? Right there. That is. That's how we learn. We discover. And honestly, isn't that part of what makes this all fun? We don't need to be the smartest person in the room. Even though I may say that in my podcast intro. So I got to rethink that because I don't actually believe that statement about being the smartest person in the room.
[00:05:57] But I'd much rather surround myself with people who know things that I don't know. People who challenge my own thinking. People who can take an idea and figure out how to make it work. I think there's something just super cool, super special about that type of relationship. The curious person sees possibilities. But then it's like the engineer sees the details. It's like let's go build this.
[00:06:27] But you don't know how. So you kind of need this like balance. And somewhere between those two perspectives, something new can happen. And I think this goes way beyond engineering. It applies to irrigation, landscaping. It applies to running a business. It applies to learning any new skill. It applies to almost anything we might want to do in life.
[00:06:52] How many times have you had an idea and talked yourself out of it? Maybe you didn't know enough. Maybe you weren't experienced enough. Maybe you weren't qualified enough. Or maybe you just didn't want to look stupid trying. I know I've certainly been there all the time. Especially that you don't want to look stupid trying. That's one of the things that I'm only recently trying to just get out of my head.
[00:07:22] I want to move to the point where I don't ever want to regret trying because I thought I would look stupid. It's not about that. But how else are we supposed to learn something we've never done before until we actually try to do it? It's like that's how I've tried to live my journey. I'm trying to live it more real and authentic every day.
[00:07:46] But over 25 years of learning, experimenting, building, trying things, failing, troubleshooting, all of that. So much of what I learned didn't come from someone sitting me down and teaching me exactly how to do it. It came from me asking questions. From taking things apart. From trying something new, different. And then getting it wrong. And then trying again.
[00:08:17] And I imagine many of you have learned that same way. This could be the very reason you are doing what you're doing. I know I've recorded other episodes about school and this and that. And one is not better than another. I'm just speaking from the way my brain works. And if you're listening to this, there's a good chance your brain works this way. Or at least some of the way that my brain works, likely.
[00:08:45] So think about something you know how to do today that you had absolutely no idea how to do 5 or 10 years ago. At some point, you were a beginner. At some point, you did not know what you were doing. But you figured it out. And the really cool thing is how all those experiences start connecting. Something you learned 10 years ago all of a sudden becomes useful today.
[00:09:12] A conversation with someone in a completely different industry gives you an idea for your own business. Some piece of technology designed to solve one problem becomes an inspiration for solving something entirely different. And that's my favorite thing about curiosity. You never really know when something you've learned is going to become useful. And you never know where one question might lead.
[00:09:38] And I also think there's a difference between being curious and simply having ideas. Everybody has ideas. I have more ideas than I know what to do with. And I bet you do too. But curiosity makes us want to investigate them. To wonder what happens if you try it. And that's what gets me. I love ideas because I want to feed my curiosity with taking the next step. And so many people just want to have great ideas at some cocktail party or beers at the football game.
[00:10:08] And that is it. Just there. Just full of ideas. No action, which makes me think. No curiosity. No curiosity. And I'd rather try something and learn from it than spend my life wondering what might have happened. And maybe you feel the same way. I think there's something there, something worth encouraging, especially in this industry.
[00:10:38] We need people who are willing to question how things have always been done. We need people who are interested in new technology, new methods, new possibilities. We need people who aren't afraid to try something new and experiment. We need people who understand the details and can turn those experiments into something real.
[00:11:02] Because curiosity all alone, just curiosity by itself doesn't actually build a thing. It doesn't build anything. At some point, somebody has to go do the work. Or somebody, some people, some team, they have to go do the work.
[00:11:21] I have this appreciation, I guess, or admiration for people who can take a concept and turn it into something that actually functions. Like, I love seeing someone's first prototype. It doesn't even matter what it's made out of. It doesn't matter. Just, I love seeing the idea that's in someone's brain come into the physical world. And I think that's part of this craft.
[00:11:49] And I know last week I talked about making art with what we do. And I think that's craft. You know, it's art. And I think there's art in imagining it too. So maybe there's something here, like for all of us. The next time we come across something we don't understand, what if we got a little bit more curious? We asked another question. Found someone who knows more than we do and learn from them.
[00:12:14] And if you've got an idea, you've been sitting on it because you're not quite sure how to make it happen, maybe that's worth exploring. I don't know what that idea is for you. Maybe it's a business. Maybe it's a better way to do something in your current job or a better way of doing something, a different running routine, exercise routine.
[00:12:36] I mean, it really could be anything, a piece of technology you're curious about, but you haven't taken the time to really dig in and learn. Whatever it is, you don't need to have every answer before you begin. You just need to be willing to learn. The people who are doing interesting things aren't necessarily the people who know the most or even know what they are doing.
[00:13:05] How do you know that the person doing something knows how they're doing? What if they're just figuring it out along the way? Sometimes they're simply the people who were curious enough to get that thing started and willing enough to keep going and asking the right questions and trying again and failing and trying again. I think that's what I personally enjoy most about these thoughts that I'm having with you. I'm not here because I have everything figured out. No way.
[00:13:31] I pretty much got nothing figured out other than keep doing what I'm doing and having a good time making art and doing something that entertains me. I'm just willing to share what I'm learning, what I'm questioning, and sometimes what I'm getting totally wrong. And maybe I should focus that. Maybe I should have a podcast about all the things I've done wrong.
[00:13:54] Anyway, hopefully somewhere along the way, something I share gets you thinking about something in your own life. Maybe it gives you an idea. Maybe it encourages you to try something. Or maybe you just realize there are other people out there whose mind work a little like yours.
[00:14:16] So to the curious, the adventurous, the risk takers, the builders, and everyone listening who has a hundred ideas bouncing around in their head or going around in their head like a, I was going to say like a Ferris wheel. You can't think of the other word for it. A Ferris wheel is vertical. What's the horizontal Ferris wheel? I can't remember what the horse is. Anyway, for all of you, keep asking why. Keep connecting those dots.
[00:14:45] Keep trying things you don't know how to do yet. And don't lose that part of yourself that looks at the world and wonders what else might be possible. For me, I'll probably keep annoying all the engineers. Not all the engineers. And maybe that's a good filter. Those are the engineers that I don't annoy. Those are my kind of engineers. But a lot of them think they just know way more than they do.
[00:15:17] Anyway, and that's it for today, guys. Thank you for listening to this quickie. I'm Andy, the Sprinkler Nerd. This is the Sprinkler Nerd Show. Stay curious, my friends. And I'll catch you on the next episode.